This is not only a sensational collection of first rate jazz, it is a truly endearing performance. The first time I saw Billy Crystal on television he was doing an impression of drummer Zutty Singleton. I said to myself “this has got to be Jack Crystal’s kid!” and of course it was. Jack Crystal, for those of you who didn’t grow up in the New York jazz world of the ’30s and ’40s, was the manager of the unforgettable Commodore Music Shop and also ran weekly jam sessions at a Lower East Side wedding and bar mitzvah hall known as the Central Plaza.

Jack was also the brother-in-law of Milt Gabler, who started the Commodore jazz record label and who later became a top executive for Decca, where he helped along the careers of everyone from Bing Crosby to Ella Fitzgerald to Sammy Davis, Jr. This album includes a healthy 26 top hits of the Gabler years, including recordings by Eddie Condon, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Louis Jordan, Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong, and the list goes on and on. But of equal importance is a separate 30 minute video DVD produced and narrated by Billy Crystal in which he shows us, through old home movies, family snapshots, and music memorabilia, just what it was like in the world of his Uncle Milt. Pictures of some of the greatest names in jazz are interspersed with images of Billy Crystal as a little boy doing handstands, somersaults and just about anything else he can think of to get a laugh out of the grownups around him. It’s a tough act not to like and an easy one to fall in love with. Oh, and in case I didn’t make the point, the music is simply wonderful.